Today I have a special update. As fans have picked up on, many of the recent cubes have been about changing, improving, and failing. This has not been just due to the great messages all hitting at once, but has correlated with events in my personal & professional life. Now, a little about what has happened & what I am thinking.

Here is the rest in audio format:

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When I started doing starting cube nearly 8 months ago there were a few goals:
– share great things I’ve found (or in the future others too)
– promote great things that
– help people develop solutions or offer value to the world
The idea was simple, provide a starting point & see what happens. Twice a week, a short audio podcast for people to chew on.

The style has shifted & changed over time, with more creativity of piecing together parts being the most recent focus.

The thing is that doing each episode takes a good bit of time, something we all have limits on.

Jim Collins produced a great concept in Good to Great called the Hedgehog concept. It says that the spot, area, or nitch you really want to be in combines three things:
– your strengths
– your passions
– your economic engine

My strengths are well-known, they involve organizations, systems, people, communications, processes, and other social science stuff.

My passions are pretty simple too — private solutions to public problems, I have more but that is the overarching theme.

Now economic engine.

Jim actually revised this a little for “social sector” or non-profit sector breaking it from a Profit per X into three individual sub-engines:
– cashflow
– brand equity
– time – people

I see that ringing true for all organizations & for all people.

That’s the area I have to work on, both as an individual and as an overall organization – that StartingCube is just a small mart of.

Moving forward I see three main options:

1. more people
2. less cubes per week
3. just less & random

1. more people
I would love others to be involved. If the right people appear and work with me on Starting Cube, it can continue & grow. If you want to help out, send me an email (use forum in sidebar)

2. less cubes per week – I’ve considered committing to 1 new cube per week & might go with this if I feel that some discussion or communication, or even a new podcast could be developed to help people more. This is sorta the middle ground.

3. just less & random
Bottom line is I will continue to go through audio, video and other media & want to share great stuff to people I believe it’ll help. I will continue to promote people I believe in and causes I want to see succeed. That’s just a part of who I am.

Thus, I don’t see StartingCube ever truly dying, but the release could be sporadic. The best thing one could do to keep up with releases is sign up for the email list.

Cheese gets moved, change happens, technology causes industries to disappear.
If almost all content goes to *free* – what is the secret that Monty Python & Engadget has found to making money off making content?

Employees are being laid off.
Unions are on strike.
Big companies threaten on your little business you have run.
Your investments look like their value dropped 10+% this week.

Basically, if you are not an all-powerful god, then this cube is for you & focused on what to do in the face of adversity. Featuring TWiT 308 (around 1 hour & 42 minute mark) & Ray Lewis on ESPN’s NFL Live.

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Ben Roethlisberger is a Superbowl Winning Quarterback, who ended up in the wrong place & suspended from the NFL.

Merril Hoge is a former NFL quarterback & NFL analyst who came alongside Ben in his dark time and mentored him.

This cube pulls from Drive by Danial Pink, specifically the chapter titled “Autonomy”. It presents a small section, then shifts to an episode of ESPN’s NFL Live where Merril Hoge tells a little about his relationship with Ben. Tony Dungy adds some insight, he has also mentored NFL players who got into trouble.

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